Member Reviews

*thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

3 stars.
Its a good idea to be teaching kids about emotions and what they are and this book does just that. Worry. It is something we all feel. Some way too much, but what is it like for a kid to feel it but not know what it is or how to 'fix it'? This book teaches kids what worry is and it helps them to understand it so when they next feel it, they will be able to try and do something about it. I like too that it also tells kids that sometimes you will feel worried, but there is no need to because sometimes, what you are worrying about would never happen. Thought I do understand that trying to tell a kid that and have them believe it, can be a bit tricky. (Same goes for adults too!) To think of worry as a type of unfriendly monster is rather creative.

The illustrations in this book are interesting. They appear to be a bit dark and creepy looking, but thats mostly just at first glance. If you take a longer look at them, they are actually nice little drawings. Not really creepy at all.

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An arc was provided generously in exchange of an honest review via Netgalley.*
This book is great! Illustrations are detailed and high contrast. They surprise and you never can guess what comes next. Some of them are a little bit scary, but it is a way for kids to experience worry and get scared in a safe way. The book gives tips how to manage and get rid of a worry. I highly recommend it for kids 4-10 years old. And don't worry it ends well.

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This is a wonderful children's book that deals with worries and anxieties.

It explains in an interesting and visual way what these feelings are and how can people, especially children, can manage them. The illustrations are detailed and wonderful. I recommend it to all parents and teachers interesting in discussing these important matters with children.

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Don't let Worry win.
This book, first published in 2005, is an excellent starting point for discussing the issue of worry with young children. Aimed at ages 4 to 6+, many children may have worries that bother them, but that they can't quite identify. As with many childhood skills, the earlier they learn to identify and control worries, the better they are going to be able to cope as they get older.

In the book's illustrations, Worry is represented by a large monster who hovers wherever there is an opportunity for worrying. Some of the scenarios are possible and some are not. For example, one hundred elephants call for tea and you have no tea bags. Don't worry, offer them lemonade instead!

The author provides symptoms of worry to help a child identify that they are actually worried, such as feeling tired, suffering stomachache or nausea.
She helps a child to believe that there may be a solution and not to panic, and advises that a worry will stay as long as you let it.
Most of the time something you worry about never happens, but worries can get even bigger, the more you worry.
Then she suggests how a child can help themselves: think or do something else, put it to the back of your mind or share it with a friend, rationalise it.

While I think this type of book serves a very useful purpose, I'm a bit baffled by the examples of worries that it gives and why it mixes totally impossible scenarios with realistic ones. There's also an example of worrying about the first day at school, and the suggested solution is to take a gift for the teacher, I'm not sure that would still be considered PC.

Most importantly, this is a book to be shared with an adult and discussed, worries brought out into the open and solved. If it helps even just a few children then it will have been well worthwhile.
Highly recommended for parents and primary schools.

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Is a Worry Worrying You? is worrying me. I kid you not!

Suppose you had read a brilliant book by Ferida Wolff and Harriet May Savitz and you needed to write a review that shows just how good it is but you don't know if your words can possibly explain your thoughts, when your thoughts about the book are more feelings than words.

Now that's a worry!

But you can get rid of that worry by reading the book three times to yourself and then reading it to someone you know who worries a lot about a lot of things and ask them what they thought as well.

Because if you talk about a worry with someone else it's easier to tell the worry to go away.

Suppose Marie Le Tourneau is an incredibly talented artist but you don't know if you could ever be that talented or creative.

Now that's a worry!

But you can get rid of that worry by admiring her talent and laughing along with the humour in her illustrations. You can also spend time searching out each picture for the worry monster you know will be lurking somewhere on every page.

You can remember that everyone has their own unique talents. Rather than spending time worrying about your weaknesses you can focus on your strengths and spend time doing what you're passionate about.

Is a Worry Worrying You? may be intended for a young audience but adult worriers can also learn valuable tools while reading this book. After defining what a worry is, our authors take us on a guided tour of realistic worries children may have but told in a wild and wacky way. Like what to do if a gorilla borrows your skateboard but doesn't return it to you when they say they will.

The reader is empowered with practical tools for managing and banishing worries along with some much needed perspective for worrywarts, reminding us that most of what we worry about doesn't happen anyway.

I don't know what I was so worried about. That wasn't so hard after all. I guess I was right. This book <b>is</b> helpful for adults as well as children.

I think I need to reread this every time I have a worry to practice what I've learned until the worry monster doesn't bring luggage each time he knocks on my door because he knows he won't be invited to stay anymore.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley (thank you so much to NetGalley and Tanglewood Publishing for the opportunity) in exchange for honest feedback.

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This is such a fun and hilarious book about dealing with anxiety and learning not to worry. I love how the more serious advice is interspersed with funny examples. The advice includes simple things like activities to take your mind off your worries, and encouragement to face your worry and see if it really makes sense.
The silly examples include things like, If you are worried about a hundred elephants coming over for tea, but you don't have any teabags, then offer them lemonade instead!
The cute illustrations make the book so fun to read, and really enhance the advice given.
Above all, this book encourages children to talk about their anxiety with a friend, and share their worries with parents, so that those fears lose their power over you.

Disclaimer: I received an ecopy of this book from the author/publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone.

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i will be getting a copy of this book for the children i work with at school. An invaluable book for explaining worries in a fun but pragmatic way. I read this together with my 6 year old and she loved the animal references and also the illustrations.

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Now, I have read many children’s books that is usually either a straight up horror story or a straight up morality tale. But, I had never come across a children’s book that had both horror and life lessons for children all combined into one story until I had requested another children’s book from NetGalley called “Is a Worry Worrying You?” “Is a Worry Worrying You?” is a children’s book written by Ferida Wolff and Harriet May Savitz along with illustrations by Marie Letourneau and it is definitely one of the most creative and haunting children’s books I had ever read!

This book is basically about helping children deal with being worried about certain situations by showing their worries in the form of a monster that is constantly hounding the characters in the book. The book would put the characters in certain situations such as worrying about a hundred elephants coming for tea and you realize that you ran out of tea for the elephants to drink. So, the solution to the problem would be to offer the elephants lemonade instead, helping you not to worry so much during that situation and finding a reasonable solution to your problem.

Wow! I cannot believe that I just got around to reading this book (it was published in 2005, and I just discovered it on NetGalley)! Ferida Wolff and Harriet May Savitz both did a fantastic job at writing this book as I loved the idea about the concept of worry being portrayed as a scary monster that invades the characters’ homes every time the character in the story is dealing with a problem that causes them to worry! I also loved the fact that the story helps give out advice to young children about how to deal with worrisome situations such as finding a solution to take when dealing with such a situation. Probably my most favorite problem-solving situation that was shown in this book was the one where you have a group of elephants in your home who all want to have some tea and you do not have any tea left to give them. Instead, you decided to give the elephants some lemonade in place of the tea to solve the problem! Marie Letourneau’s artwork is surprisingly creepy in this book, which is much different from her work in “Argyle Fox.” I loved the fact that Marie Letourneau’s artwork is highly reminiscent of the character designs from the Tim Burton films with the characters having large rounded eyes with dark shadings underneath the eyes and also having tall and lanky bodies that make them look unnatural. I also loved the image of the worry monster itself as it is drawn as a blue monster with a mischievous evil grin on its face and it was quite entertaining seeing the monster pop up on each page whenever someone faces a situation that worries them.

Parents should know that the illustrations in this book might be a bit too creepy for some small children to handle, especially the images of the worry monster as it looks pretty threatening in the pages it appears in; especially whenever it is stalking the characters in the book. Parents might want to read this book first to see if their children can handle such creepy images.

Overall, “Is a Worry Worrying You?” is a truly fantastic and unique children’s book that would greatly help children overcome their worries in life and find reasonable solutions in conquering their worries! I would recommend this book to children ages five and up since the imagery might scare some small children.

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5 Stars. A humorous look at worry that seems great for the child or special person who has anxiety or is a worrywart as it focuses on actions of simple solution. Highly recommend. Thanks to NetGalley for providing this ebook for review.

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I really didn't like this story. It was well illustrated for the theme but the writing itself was off and just didn't really flow.

The illustrations were a bit dark like Are You Afraid of the Dark original illustrations mixed with Where the Wild Things Are illustrations. Coupled with the theme and this book was too just moody to be positive.

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This book is a little long winded, but very helpful. All kids worry, and some worry to much. This book is full of ideas to help little ones face their worries, get rid of their worries, or laugh at their worries. It has an older style of art like what you might see in the Miss Nelson books, but I like that. They are colorful and work well with the story.

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I thoroughly enjoyed this, I think this is relatable if you're an adult and a child. It teaches a child how to cope with worry and how to overcome worry or anxiety about particular things, how not to fuel it or add to it. How to squash that little bug [or in this case a monster,] that aims to bring you down.

I read this to my six year old and he was not only eating up the illustrations which depict Worry to be akin to the monster under the bed, it shows the child in the story cowering and then how to push that Worry aside and overcome the fear. It turns it into a visual that the children can process, in my case, my son nodded his head and he said: "Oh, you mean like I'm worried about moving to a new school?" -- so he was able to visualize his own Worry-Monster and learn that, it's okay to worry but not to let it overpower him, and it was written as well as illustrated in a way that made sense to him. It is such a positive and empowering book to children, in my opinion.

I dare say I walked away from this book with a new view, too.

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I have in the past worked in a school with children aged 4-11, a lot of whom had emotional difficulties and lots of worries, often not able to describe or explain what they were experiencing. This book would have been perfect! The illustrations are beautiful, and the story itself explains in such simple terms what a 'worry' is and what you can do about your worries. I wish I had known about this a few years back! It's the kind of book that all schools and parents should have on hand for those days when children don't want to go to school because they 'feel sick' and don't realise what they're actually experiencing is worry.
5 stars!

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This story offers children a way to confront and eliminate their worries. It addresses everything from small to large worries and realistic to fantasy worries. The pictures are humorous and portray even the most audacious scenarios in a way that will make the young reader smile.

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This book takes a serious topic and approaches it with delightful illustrations and humorous scenarios. Even though the author creates some humor, she doesn't make light of it. There are actual strategies included in the story to deal with anxiety effectively. I especially like the point it makes that worry only comes in as much as you let it. I was a very anxious child and one of my two children is as well. I would have appreciated this book to read to him when he was young.

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Suppose a monster moves in under your bed.... sing him lullabies.
Cute story with precious artwork. The worries all have simple solutions so stop worrying already.

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I love how this book addresses worries for children. The pictures are engaging and depict worry as something big and bad (which it usually is). This story identifies what worry and how it effects us. It also empowers children to do something about their worry. There are some great suggestions for coping with worry. It would nice if there was a final page that summarized a list of ideas for what children can do with their worries. As a counselor, I feel this book can really help children to understand their worries and gives ideas for parents/caregivers/children ideas of how to cope with worries. I read a free digital copy of this from Net Galley but was not required to post a review.

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This incredible children's book manages to explore anxiety in an easy to understand manner for young ages, recommending distraction and problem solving to effectively manage stress.

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Thanks to NetGalley and Tanglewood for the opportunity to read and review Is a Worry Worrying you?by Ferida Wolff and Harriet May Savitz with illustrations by Marie LeTourneau! This book has simple but appropriate illustrations that convey the feeling of worrying while reminding us that it's our choice whether we worry or not. There are many worries in life and this book gives ideas of how to get rid of worries in a fun, simple way. The worry is shown in each illustration. It's drawn many different ways with its expression showing happiness to sadness, depending on whether the character on the page is letting the worry cause stress or making it leave. Very helpful to ease everyone's worries, 5 stars!

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